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            <p><img src="../img/banner_pjd.jpg" alt="Project Diva"></p>
			<p>After Vocaloid first blew up in 2007, it wasn't long before someone decided "hm, we should make games about this!" And that someone was SEGA, who announced Project Diva for the first time in 2008.</p>
			<p>The first game came out for PSP in 2009, and was soon followed by the sequel and an arcade game in 2010. The game had almost yearly releases of some sort until 2016, though it's kinda sat dormant and untouched ever since (aside from a few ports of Arcade Future Tone, anyway).</p>
			<p>And boy oh boy. When I was younger I actually used to hate rhythm games, I never had a sense for them and I thought they were dumb (so yeah, I also never had a childhood with DDR or anything). However, this all changed when my 15 year old self who loved Vocaloid a bit too much (and I still do, if you couldn't already tell) discovered that... they made Hatsune Miku games?!?!?!</p>
			<p>So for the first time ever I was invested in a rhythm game, and this began the start of a long, dark descent for me. </p>
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			<h2 id="gameplay">gameplay</h2>
			<p>Project Diva is first and foremost a rhythm game, console entries usually have some extras like character interactions ("rooms") and photo modes, but the rhyhtm game is the core thing here.</p>
			<img src="img_pjdiva/pjd_extend.gif" alt="Gameplay from Extend">
			<p>(Excuse the combo break in this lol idk why I made this specifcally the GIF)</p>
			<p>The basis of Project Diva is pretty much just pressing the face buttons on the PS controller to match up with whatever appears on screen, different games have slightly different setups but it's mostly universal between all the games. Standard rhythm game stuff.</p>
			<p>There are a few extra notes like arrows, which are activated by pressing both dpad+face button, and star notes, which activate with the joystick (or touching the screen on Vita games, which is about as awful in action as it sounds).</p>
			<img src="img_pjdiva/pjd_controls.jpg"  alt="Arcade Future Tone control scheme" width="480">
			<p>We don't have Pjdiva machines where I live so this is a photo off <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Operation_board_of_Hatsune_Miku_Project_DIVA_Arcade_Future_Tone_Version_A_20150327.jpg">Wikimedia</a>, but Arcade uses the same sorta layout, with the addition of a touch bar on top for slide notes (which is also activated via the joysticks on console ports, much like star notes).</p>
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			<h2 id="games">console games</h2>
			<p>These are the mainline Project Diva games that have released for consoles:</p>
			<ul>
				<li>Project Diva (PSP, 2009, JP only)</li>
				<li>Project Diva 2nd (PSP, 2010, JP only)</li>
				<li>Project Diva Extend (PSP, 2011, JP only)</li>
				<li>Project Diva F (PS3 & Vita, 2013)</li>
				<li>Project Diva F 2nd (PS3 & Vita, 2014)</li>
				<li>Project Diva X (PS4 & Vita, 2016)</li>
				<li>Future Tone DX (PS4, 2016)</li>
				<li>Mega Mix/Mega39s (Switch, 2020)</li>
				<li>Mega Mix+/Mega39s+ (Steam, 2022)</li>
			</ul>
			<p>It's worth noting that both Future Tone and Mega Mix(+) are both arcade FT ports, so they have large song lists but lack any extra features (interacting with characters, custom PVs, edit mode) that prior console games had.</p>
			<p>Anyway, here are some brief overviews of all the titles:</p>
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			<h3>The first game, 2nd, and Extend (PSP era)</h3>
			<img src="img_pjdiva/pjd_title.jpg" alt="Title screen for the original Project Diva">
			<p>Available for the PSP, I will let you know that these emulate really, really well, and this was actually how I played Pjdiva for the longest time before I had a PSP or anything else to play it on. (I actually bought a PSP specifically for playing these on the go...)</p>
			<p>The original Pjdiva in particular is an odd one, it has a lot of strange UI and design choices, and it's overall kinda... jank. You can't use the dpad for inputs, your cool/safe/miss rating gets hidden during chance time, and it's also REALLY easy. However, it has a damn fine song list, with it having more of a focus on groups of songs from specific producers plus some random ones. It also runs like pure ass, especially on original hardware, with lots of lag and frame drops mid-song lol. That being said, I don't really reccomend the first game, as all of its songs are available in later releases with a multitude of game improvements.</p>
			<img src="img_pjdiva/pjd_songs.jpg" width="480" alt="Song selection for the original Project Diva">
			<p>In addition to rhythm game, there's also a "room" feature where you can decorate and watch Miku interact with the things you put in there, though it's pretty barebones and you honestly can't do a lot.</p>
			<img src="img_pjdiva/pjd_room.jpg" alt="Room feature in the original Project Diva">
			<p>2nd on the other hand is such an improvement that it's kind of insane, it's so much more fleshed out and cleaned up. It still runs kinda shittily at times, but it's still better than the original game, and you can also use the dpad for inputs now.</p>
			<img src="img_pjdiva/pjd_2ndwim.jpg" alt="Miku in the PV for World Is Mine">
			<p>There's also been improvements to the room feature, so you have a bit more stuff to do and observe.</p>
			<img src="img_pjdiva/pjd_extendroom.jpg" alt="Miku in Extend's room feature">
			<p>After this, Extend released in 2011. However. Extend is essentially just... an extension of 2nd (hence the title lol), and it's nearly identical with some very minor improvements, in addition to some new modules and new songs as well. Hell, there was actually an updated version of 2nd that was available for cheap that has all the improvements from Extend, 2nd# or Okaidoku Ban it's called.</p>
			<p>Extend also adds some much-needed performance improvements, so this and 2nd# are probably the best versions to play if you're looking to give the PSP games a try.</p>
			<img src="img_pjdiva/pjd_extendsongs.jpg" alt="Extend's song list">
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			<h3>Honourable mention: Dreamy Theatre (PS3)</h3>
			<p>I don't actually have any footage or screenshots of this one because it's kind of a pain in the ass to set up and I've only done it once for fun, but the idea of Dreamy Theatre is essentially:</p>
			<p>
				1. Download the Dreamy Theatre apps to your PS3 and PSP
				<br>2. Make sure you have the Diva games on your PSP
				<br>3. Open the corresponding Dreamy Theatre apps on your PSP and PS3
				<br>4. Plug in your PSP to your PS3
				<br>5. Play songs on your PS3 while enjoying the high quality Arcade models
			</p>
			<p>It's fine, it works. It's kind of weird to operate, but if you want to upgrade from the crusty PSP models and play the game it's fine.</p>
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			<h3>F and F 2nd (Vita & PS3)</h3>
			<p></p>
			<img src="img_pjdiva/pjd_fmenu.jpg" alt="" width="480">
			<p></p>
			<img src="img_pjdiva/pjd_f2nd_menu.jpg" alt="" width="480">
			<p></p>
			<img src="img_pjdiva/pjd_f2nd_divaroom.jpg" alt="" width="480">
			<p></p>
			<img src="img_pjdiva/pjd_f2nd_divaroom2.jpg" alt="" width="480">
			<p></p>
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			<h3>X & X HD (Vita & PS4)</h3>
			<p></p>
			<img src="img_pjdiva/pjd_xmenu.jpg" alt="" width="480">
			<p></p>
			<img src="img_pjdiva/pjd_xcloud.jpg" alt="" width="480">
			<p></p>
			<img src="img_pjdiva/pjd_xgameplay.jpg" alt="" width="480">
			<p></p>
			<img src="img_pjdiva/pjd_xstars.jpg" alt="" width="480">
			<p></p>
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			<h3>Future Tone's Ports</h3>
			<p></p>
			<img src="img_pjdiva/pjd_ftsongs.jpg" alt="" width="480">
			<p></p>
			<img src="img_pjdiva/pjd_fterase.jpg" alt="" width="480">
			<p></p>
			<img src="img_pjdiva/pjd_ftcontinuing.jpg" alt="" width="480">
			<p></p>
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			<h2>project diva arcade</h2>
			<p></p>
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			<h2>side series and spinoffs</h2>
			<ul>
				<li>Hatsune Miku and Future Stars: Project Mirai (3DS, 2012, JP only)</li>
				<li>Project Mirai 2 (3DS, 2013, JP only)</li>
				<li>Project Mirai DX (3DS, 2015)</li>
				<li>Project Sekai: Colorful Stage (mobile, 2020)</li>
			</ul>
			<p>There's also a few other one-off mobile games and releases like Miku Flick and VR Future Live, but I don't have any experience with them and tbh don't think they're worth talking about.</p>
			<p>Project Sekai (Pjsekai/Proseka) officially marked the end of Project Diva, as ever since its release Diva has essentially been dead aside from the release of Mega39s on PC, which is just a port of an arcade port anyway. Proseka has now become the main focus of the SEGA feat. Hatsune Miku project which is kinda sad considering it's yet another mobile rhythm gacha game timesink, but tbh Diva was mostly inactive for years prior so I guess it's better than the series dying out wholly.</p>
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			<h2>playing the games in 2024</h2>
			<p>If you're looking to acquire these games legitimately on modern systems, your options are admittedly a bit limited.</p>
			<p></p>
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			<h2 id="resources">resources</h2>
			<ul>
				<li><a href="https://miku.sega.jp/">Official site</a></li>
				<li><a href="https://projectdiva.wiki/wiki/Main_Page">Project Diva wiki</a></li>
				<li><a href="https://divafanproject.blogspot.com">Diva Fan Project</a> (Spanish fan site with song packs and translations for the PSP games)</li>
				<li><a href="https://divafanproject.blogspot.com/search/label/English">Diva Fan Project - English translation patches</a></li>
				<li><a href="https://gamebanana.com/games/16522">Gamebanana - Mods for Mega Mix+</a></li>
				<li><a href="https://rentry.co/pdaftforpc">Guide for running PDAFT on PC</a></li>
				<li>https://ch.nicovideo.jp/ch253/video?sort=f&order=a</li>
			</ul>
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